Keira Melican

Keira Melican

Principal Researcher | Docent
Telephone: +46852487069
Visiting address: Cmm, L8:02, Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, 17176 Stockholm
Postal address: K2 Medicin, Solna, K2 Derm o Ven Eidsmo L Melican K, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • Associate Professor working with Bacterial Pathogenesis.
    Chairman of the Swedish Society for Microbiology
    2004 Bachelor of Science, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
    2005 Master of Science, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
    2010 PhD in Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
    2010-2013 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Paris Cardiovascular Research
    Center, Paris, France
    2014 - 2019 Assistant Professor, Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center,
    Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
    2019 - Senior Researcher, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska
    Institutet, Stockholm

Research

  • In my team we aim to understand the dynamic interplay which occurs between
    host and pathogen following infection, as a means to find alternative
    treatment options. To do this we use a number of cutting-edge techniques
    including intravital imaging, /in vivo/ modelling, immunological screening
    and nanomedical approaches.
    Our current focus is on two different clinically important bacterial
    pathogens, /Staphylococcus aureus/ and uropathogenic /Escherichia coli/.
    In our work with /Staphylococcus/ we are using humanized models of skin
    colonisation to understand how methicillin resistant /S. aureus/ (MRSA)
    colonizes healthy human skin and the inflammatory reaction this triggers.
    Further we are investigating the role of coagulase negative Staphylococci
    (CoNS) in skin colonisation and its interactions with MRSA.
    To study UPEC kidney infection we use a spatially-temporally controlled in
    vivo model to allow single cell resolution of kidney infection. This work has
    led to the description of an infection-mediated protective coagulation
    response to prevent the progression of infection to sepsis. Ongoing work aims
    to understand how different innate immune response activate
    following local bacterial infections.

Teaching

  • I am course responsible for the PhD course in Clinical and Molecular
    Bacteriology as well as free-standing course and workshops focussing on
    interdisiplanary approaches to Infection.
    I lecture in a number of both undergraduate and graduate courses here at KI
    as well as other universities around Sweden.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

Employments

  • Principal Researcher, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2025-
  • Principal Researcher, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-2025

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2022
  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 2010

Supervision

  • Anna-Lena Gürtler, Electrospun skin patches for the treatment of psoriasis, 2024
  • Mariam Shahata, 2023
  • Andreas Brutscher, Profiling the immune response of healthy human skin to colonization by different Staphylococcus sp., 2022
  • Tianqi Zhang, 2020
  • Julia Lang
  • Anette Schulz

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